Many original Muslim geometric works are “books” or chapters of great mathematical, astronomical, and encyclopedic works. Geometrical parts are contained in the algebraic treatise of al‐Khwārizmī (ca. 780–850), in the Miftāḥ al‐ḥisāb (Key of Arithmetic) of Jamshīd al‐Kāshī (d. ca. 1430), in the astronomical al‐Qānūn al‐Mas ˓ ūdī (Masudic Canon) of Abū'1 Rayḥān al‐Bīrūnī (973–1048) and in his treatises on astrolabes, as well as in the encyclopedic Kitāb al‐shifā (Book of Healing) of Abū ˓Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna 980–1037). There are also special geometric treatises, commentaries on Euclid, and treatises on geometrical theorems, calculations, constructions, and the foundations of geometry.
Calculations of areas of plane figures and of volumes of solids were considered in the chapter “On mensuration” of the algebraic treatise of al‐Khwārizmī. Many rules in this chapter coincide with the rules of Hero's Metrics(first century AD) and of Indian mathematicians of the fifth and sixth...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abgrall, Philippe. al‐Quhi et les Courbes Coniques. Perspectives arabes et médiévales sur la tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque. Ed. Ahmad Hasnawi, et al. Leuven: Peeters, 1997. 21–9.
Bellosta, Hélène. Ibrahim ibn Sinan: Apollonius Arabicus. Perspectives arabes et médiévales sur la tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque. Ed. Ahmad Hasnawi, et al. Leuven: Peeters, 1997. 31–48.
Busard, H. L. L. A Latin Translation of an Arabic Commentary on Book X of Euclid's “Elements”. Mediaeval Studies 59 (1997): 19–110.
Crozet, Pascal. al‐Sijzi et les “Éléments” d'Euclide: Commentaires et autres démonstrations des propositions. Perspectives arabes et médiévales sur la tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque. Ed. Ahmad Hasnawi, et al. Leuven: Peeters, 1997. 61–77.
De Young, Gregg. al‐Jawhari's Additions to Book V of Euclid's “Elements”. Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaften 11 (1997): 153–78.
Miled, Marouane Ben. Les commentaires d'al‐Mahani et d'un anonyme du livre X des “Éléments” d'Euclide. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy: A Historical Journal 9 (1999): 89–156.
Rosenfeld, Boris. A History of Non‐Euclidean Geometry. New York: Springer‐Verlag, 1988.
Youschkevitch, Adolphe. Les mathématiques arabes (VIII–XV siècles). Paris: Vrin, 1976.
Zarfatti, Gad B. Munḥe ha‐mathematikah ba‐sifrut ha‐mada ˓ it ha ˓ ivrit shel yeme habenayim (Mathematical Terminology in the Hebrew Scientific Literature of the Middle Ages). Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1968.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Rosenfeld, B. (2008). Geometry in Islamic Mathematics. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9226
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9226
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4559-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4425-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law